FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary computing system 10 that includes a computing device 14 and a printer 18. The computing device 14 may be, for example, a desktop computer, a laptop, a server, and the like, and may operate with an appropriate type of operating system, e.g., Microsoft Windows®, MAC®, Linux®, etc. The printer 18 may be a color printer, a monochrome printer, a multifunction printer that includes additional capabilities like scanning, faxing, copying, and the like. The printer 18 is coupled to the computing device 14 through an appropriate link 26, e.g., a USB link, a wired or wireless network connection (e.g., a home or corporate network, intranet, internet, etc.), a serial port connection, a parallel port connection, and the like.
To fully utilize the functionalities of the printer 18, an appropriate print driver (e.g., print driver 22) typically needs to be loaded, installed, and configured in the computing device 14, as is well known in the art. In various embodiments, the print driver 22 may be available in an appropriate external storage device, e.g., a CD ROM, a flash drive, etc. Alternatively, the computing device 14 may also access the print driver 22 from a print server, or over a network (e.g., using the internet or an intranet, from a website of the manufacturer or seller of the printer 18, etc.).
While print drivers are often accessible to users of computing devices through resources mentioned above, in some cases, however, a user of a computing device may not have access to a print driver through such resources and/or may not be sure about which print driver to install on the computing device. For example, many different printer drivers for different types of printers typically are available for installation on a computing device, and selection of an appropriate (or correct) print driver from among a plurality of print drivers may be a difficult task.